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Casey Voight Time-Lapse Painting

Today I have something new to share.

I had a lot of positive responses to a post I did called The Zombie Phase of Life. Many cool comments came in about seeing the progression of the painting in it and I thought it might be fun to try something new and do a full time-lapse painting. I’ve never done a time-lapse, nor knew the first step to it, but I like challenges and I figured it out…sort of. As with life, it’s all trial and error, so if nothing else this might amuse you.

If you’d like to try doing a time-lapse here are the things I learned to do the next time.

1. Wear some makeup so you don’t look like you just woke up (even though you just did). Do your hair, frizz is highly reflective under lights.

2. Film some place other than your fathers trophy hunting room so your intro doesn’t look like an episode of Taxidermy R Us.

3. Despite the preference for natural light, this will hurt you in the end. The lighting changes throughout the day will play havoc on glare and image color. Pick a windowless room and set up good filtered light or else your photos will look very yellow like this:(

4. Figure out your time-lapse software ahead of time so you don’t waste the first day being frustrated when it doesn’t work. I gave up trying to get my computer to communicate with my camera and took the pictures manually throughout. It works so-so but the transition would have been smoother had I taken a shot more frequently.

5. Tape around the location of the tripod legs so when you back into your camera you know where to put it back.

6. Have an extra charged battery or be sure to remember to charge over night.

7. Have fun and remember it ALWAYS looks like crud half way through, just keep going.

Well unfortunately I was juggling having a sick toddler through most of it. (He had a nest of blankets to the right of the canvas so you see things shifting over there). I’d say all in all about 28-30 hours.

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I am a graphic and interior designer by day and by night I am a cook, maid, storyteller and bath maker for my amazing 3–year–old. With whatever time is left I am an artist and writer. I just self-published my first novel The Dove: Book One of the Legend and am working on the second of the five part series.